Saturday, March 31, 2012

3/31/12

Noon Position: 42 47' S, 69 54' E, SOG 5.4, COG 080, Day's Run 144nm. Well, the Indian has claimed a bit of electronic tribute - solar panel to the pacific, radar reflector to the Indian. The cable snapped before things calmed down enough for me to get aloft, so now I've got one arm of the mounting bracket sticking out of the side of the mast like an anti-albatross spike, trailing a bit of wiring. Worthless piece of junky sheetmetal. On the domestic front, my battles with the stove have shifted into a new front. I managed to solve the problem of the stove unscrewing itself from the gimbals with judicious use of the last of my loctite, and thankfully I've been greeted by no more late night crashes as the stove plummets to the earth. Instead, the bracket that attaches the gimbal to the cabinetry has been slowly unscrewing itself every few days, dropping the bolts which hold it in amongst the tea kettle and sponges below the stove. This at least is a less irritiating hobby, since A) it's quiet, no horrid squawlings, and B) there are three bolts holding the bracket, and the stove only seems to be able to back the nut off of one bolt at a time, giving me fair warning to put it all back together again. I feel like there's a bit of a repetitive theme on this trip of nice equipment being undermined by inadequate, junky mounting hardware...